Saturday, February 13, 2010

Check and Check Mate

Memo from “we the people” to President Obama: Republican Scott Brown’s miraculous election to the newly ordained “people’s seat” in liberal Massachusetts – Check. Just how much this game changing move has resonated with Obama remains to be seen. However, I do think I could venture a good guess – not much… yet.

Prior to the recent State of the Union Address, I correctly predicted President Obama wouldn’t triangulate and move to the middle as Clinton did in 1995. He’d dismiss Brown’s win and remain course with his radical agenda. Since his community organizing days, this has always been the priority, to “fundamentally transform America.” He’s repeatedly told us this outright so my prediction isn’t impressive.

Obama’s agenda will never change, especially now that he’s so close to achieving his far left goals, but after Brown’s win, how he delivers it will; he’ll give the appearance that he’s moving towards the middle without actually doing so. For Obama, perceptions are everything and reality is of little consequence, as long as the ends justify the means, as Saul Alinsky taught him.

It’s important to Obama that we buy the “perceptions” he’s selling. Any affront to them is met with his immediate attempts to correct it. He rewrites the truth to create a new “reality” no matter how obvious and ridiculous. This is why the White House dispersed the “spin trifecta” of David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett, and Robert Gibbs, who shamelessly echoed Obama’s false interpretation of Brown’s election. Instead of acknowledging the clear referendum it is, they audaciously asserted that it’s an Obama affirmation. Obama told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos “The same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office.” When Fox News’ Chris Wallace addressed that Brown ran on being the 41st vote against Obama Care, Gibbs replied, “Well, that may be what he campaigned on, but that's not why the voters of Massachusetts sent him to Washington.”

The incessant defensive spin makes it appear that criticism and clear referendums fall on deaf ears, especially coming from the rapidly growing grassroots TEA Party movement, who strongly oppose his policies; even from an election like Brown’s. Rest assured, Obama hears. He’s keenly aware of more than his ego will allow him to admit. Unfortunately, that same ego is buried under thin skin that exposes just how much the criticism so frequently strikes a nerve. He can’t help himself; the distracting Achilles heal of his narcissism is predominant and everything else is viewed and prioritized through that skewed lens. He spends more time responding to criticism than he does to the concerns of “we the people.” He hears us, but he refuses to listen; there’s a vast difference between the two and therein lays the problem.

Obama interprets "we the people," spinning the truth to affirm the agenda he pushes at our expense. He campaigns against us for that agenda with the same focus and fervor employed against McCain in the 2008 election. We’re mere pawns to him in his chess game of political strategy, manipulated with sweeping, crafty rhetoric in order to serve his purpose. We’re smart enough to recognize political posturing that gives the appearance of connecting with us. But, real connection can’t be faked; it’s there or it isn’t, as revealed by subsequent actions. Obama’s actions speak so loud we can’t even hear what he’s saying.

During his State of the Union speech, Obama reframed our anger at him as being about partisan arguing. He claimed our anger was because “TV pundits reduce serious debates into silly arguments and big issues into sound bites,” and as frustration with “a Washington where every day is Election Day.” He invalidated the legitimacy of our anger by implying we believe partisan lies told to us by the GOP. At the recent annual retreat for the House Republicans, Obama said, “You've been telling your constituents, 'This guy's doing all kinds of crazy stuff that's going to destroy America.'" Oh, if we only had the truth – his truth, then we wouldn’t be angry.

Oh, if Obama would only listen to the messages on the clever, homemade TEA Party signs then he would know our truth:

- The only way to stimulate the economy is – get government out of it! Get out of the private sector and leave us alone – period.

- We don’t want tax increases, spending bills, or bigger government.

- We want the president to uphold his oath to protect and defend our Country and the Constitution.

- We don’t want to fundamentally transform America – never!

A recent Rasmussen poll revealed that the majority of Americans feel this way. That it doesn’t matter to Obama is beyond infuriating. Instead of listening and appropriately responding to what “we the people” want, he continues to pull hard left to achieve his long time goals, whether we like it or not. He believes he knows best and will eventually win us over. He doesn’t know how wrong he is! Recently, on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Obama said Wall Street Fat Cats “still don’t get it.” How ironic! This is how we feel about Obama. How can we be any clearer? What will it take for him to listen and finally get it?

In the address, Obama threw the Republican’s a few bones, giving the appearance that gets it. He mentioned freezing discretionary spending, looking at offshore drilling, and building nuclear power plants. And all of a sudden Health Care Reform is not urgent anymore. Finally the focus is on jobs and the economy. Big deal! It doesn’t really matter how many bones he throws or which part of his agenda he works on if his solution is more government. As former President Reagan eloquently made clear, “Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.”

He may dismiss Scott Brown’s election as being any kind of serious message. Some called it the “Scott Heard Round the World,” heard by everyone except the Obama Administration! After all, Brown represents only one changed Senate seat and Obama still holds the majority with 59. However, at the coming mid-term elections, our votes will reduce that number more significantly. Our Founders were wise to establish a Republic providing a system of “checks and balances,” putting proper use of power in the hands of the people at the ballot box. Come November 2010 and 2012, make no mistake, we the people will finally be heard - “Check mate!”

About Me

Take the journey with me in navigating single life. While this Blog will read like a journal, it is designed to become interactive. And even though the focus is as titled, for "single ladies," men are not excluded from this ongoing conversation. Hoping we all can learn from each other, encourage one another, and grow together.